Governance, risks and transparency

Governance Framework

The ONS operates within the UK Statistics Authority’s statutory governance framework, with clear separation between executive decision-making, independent oversight and regulation. During 2025/26, our governance remained effective throughout the significant leadership transition, including the separation of the National Statistician and Permanent Secretary roles, at least temporarily, and the appointment of an Interim Chair. The Authority Board and its sub‑committees provide robust oversight of our recovery, prioritisation and performance, and have strengthened executive governance arrangements to improve pace, clarity and accountability. They are subject to regular effectiveness reviews as part of the overall governance framework reviews. We continue to engage with Parliament and welcome the scrutiny, challenge and support from PACAC.

Risk Management

We manage risk through a mature, organisation-wide Risk and Assurance Framework aligned to the Orange Book, with strategic risks actively owned by senior leaders and embedded in executive decision-making. In 2025/26, we strengthened our approach through clearer ownership, improved escalation and more focused scrutiny of risks relating to quality, technology, people and delivery of recovery plans. The Executive Committee, Audit and Risk Assurance Committee and Authority Board provide regular oversight to ensure transparency of reporting and that improvement plans are in place to bring risks back within appetite. The organisation’s principal strategic risks, along with their mitigations, are set out in Annex B and provide the basis for ongoing executive and Board level assurance.

Assurance and Controls

We apply a comprehensive system of internal control underpinned by the Three Lines model, providing clarity over roles and responsibilities for managing risk and delivering assurance. Internal Audit provides independent assurance aligned to Global Internal Audit Standards, supplemented by external assurance from the National Audit Office and independent regulatory assurance from the OSR. The National Infrastructure and Service Transformation Authority (NISTA) also provide assurance of our major change programmes as an additional third line. During the year, we strengthened our control environment through improved risk reporting, refreshed governance, refreshed and enhanced data governance, and more effective use of assurance to support delivery and recover confidence in core statistical outputs. There are areas where additional assurance is required including tackling legacy issues and continuing to improve the quality of our core statistics whilst ensuring we have the right skills and capabilities to deliver.

Transparency and Public Engagement

We place transparency, openness and responsiveness at the centre of our governance approach to rebuild trustworthiness and support informed public debate. We have continued to work in the open by inviting feedback to inform priorities and by widening our engagement with users, including academics and topic experts, to ensure our statistics focus on what matters most. We also remain committed to developing and progressing workplans arising from the independent report following the inaugural UK Statistics Assembly in 2025, which set out four priority areas for action, including strengthening how we understand and respond to user needs. We have been transparent about progress through regular updates and are working collaboratively across the statistical system to develop a refreshed approach to user engagement that improves the feedback loop and builds on the momentum from the Assembly.

Board and executive reporting were strengthened during 2025/26 to ensure clearer articulation of risks, quality issues and progress against recovery plans. We continued to engage openly with Parliament, regulators, users and the media and responding to external reviews, which all reinforce our commitment to public value, independence and trustworthiness.

Forward Look

Looking ahead, we will continue to embed governance reforms and strengthen risk assurance and performance management to support sustained recovery and production of high-quality statistics. Priorities for 2026/27 include refreshing the strategic risk profile, completing planned year-end assurance activity, and fully embedding improvements to executive governance, data, technology and people capability. Maintaining transparency, improving quality and building organisational resilience will remain central as we continue our improvement journey.